Supply of mid-priced rentals quickly drying up; Almost none available in Randstad

It has been less than two weeks since the Affordable Rent Act took effect, and the supply of mid-priced rental properties is quickly drying up. There are virtually no rentals in this price range available in the Randstad, the Telegraaf reports after speaking to rental platforms.

The Affordable Rent Act took effect on July 1. It extended the points system that already applied to social housing to also include mid-priced rental properties in the private sector with less than 187 points, based on surface area, location, energy label, and finish, among other things. The affected private sector landlords can charge new tenants no more than 1,158 euros for homes they previously rented out for around 2,000 euros.

That obviously impacts their returns, and many are selling their rental properties as soon as the existing tenant leaves. “It was already predicted; now we see it happening in practice,” Djordy Seelman of rental platform HousingAnywhere told the newspaper.

In Amsterdam, only two mid-priced rentals are available on the rental platforms Pararius and Funda, according to the Telegraaf. One is 50 square meters for 1,150 euros, the other 30 square meters for 1,108 euros. The Amsterdam housing associations have four rentals in the mid-price range, but they are subject to a series of priority regulations and income limits, among other things.

Utrecht has only one mid-priced rental available. In The Hague, commercial sites offer three, with 235 responses to one modest apartment of 1,048 euros.

Rooms are still available in the low-priced segment, but are often reserved for roommates or students and typically concern temporary rentals. The higher segment, in which rents are still unregulated, has about 500 rental properties available in Amsterdam on Funda.

“We see independent mid-rental apartments disappearing. Even larger apartments between 60 and 80 square meters are being sold,” Seelman of HousingAnywhere said.

Residential company Toon Mans also notices that larger rental apartments are being sold into the owner-occupied market, even if they have more than 187 points. “Tenants can request an interim adjustment of the rent if, for example, the energy label expires. As a landlord, you really have to be around 220 points if you want to be sure that the home does not fall back to the average rent in the long term.”

Fris Vastgoed, which manages about 7,000 rental properties for private and institutional investors, is also seeing more and more private landlords selling their rentals. “I think that almost all rental properties that cannot be raised above 187 points through improvements will be sold off. But it is determined locally. There are also areas, such as Delfzijl, where the market rent is lower, and you can charge according to the points system,” owner Hans Peter Fris told the newspaper.

According to Fris, the industry is counting on the government to change its mind and roll back rent regulation in the mid-segment. “Eventually, the tide will turn. There are even a few investors who are now buying up rental properties cheaply. They speculate that politicians will roll back regulation, which is inevitable, in their view.”